[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: My Friend, the Pope (in-training): Part 11: Vival
*randomly shows up with an update out of the blue* I have no sense of time anymore. :') What is time even? Can't say I have this fic completely finished yet, so this is more of a teaser, I guess. ):
Title: My Friend, the Pope (in-training)
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 5,635
Summary: Grisia wasn't chosen as the Sun Knight. This is the legend of the strongest Pope in all history. AU.
Notes: Vival has been waiting years for his time to shine. :')
Part 11: Vival
While I had interacted with him during lessons on holy magic and sometimes brushed by him in the hallways, it wasn't until I was tasked with helping out with conducting the next worship service that we became actual "friends" instead of mere acquaintances.
It was then that I learned just how unbelievable he was.
The worship service was to be held in the Hall of Praise, a beautiful building made for beautiful voices. As a holy knight-in-training who was still learning his way around, I was not expected to lead the service. Instead, I would be assisting my teacher, who would be the one leading the worship service. Before taking on any students, the teachers had instead led the worship service with each other in pairs. Now, it would be my teacher and me instead of my teacher and another knight-captain. So, despite that I wasn't expected to lead the service, I was still filling in for a knight-captain, and that was an awfully big role to fill.
"I have to imbue my singing with holy light? How do I do that?" I wondered out loud.
My holy light abilities, while not poor, were not all that amazing either. It meant that I would have to regulate the holy light I used during my singing to make sure that I had enough to last me the entire song. Perhaps even more than one song, if my teacher wished to push my limits. I would also have to make sure to appear noble and haughty while singing.
How was I to appear noble and haughty when I was more than likely to choke on my own saliva in a futile attempt to reach those high notes? Even worse, I had to bless the audience with holy light while dying in embarrassment, like I was giving them my blessing to laugh at me!
My teacher waved his hand in the air. "Don't worry about it so much. Just make sure to keep your chin raised and your eyes sharp. If your holy light falters at all, the Pope will be with us to assist. His student, too. We're the cruel, cold-hearted faction. We're not expected to be sparkling with holy light. Remember, the good, warm-hearted faction leads with benevolence, while we lead with severity. Your haughty demeanor is what will reassure the public that everything is well in hand."
I was about to nod when I remembered what my teacher always told me: keep your chin raised.
I really should have taken the opportunity to nod to my content when I still could, as I would later on develop quite the stiff neck, but the eager to please youth I had been instead quickly stuck his chin up and said, "I understand."
At that, my teacher's hand dropped on top of my head, and he gave it a rub.
A smile almost came over my face, but I managed to push it down.
"You can smile, Vival." Teacher waved his hand again. I immediately missed the weight on top of my head. "You just need to make sure it looks more like a smirk. It can even help you infuriate people. No soft or fond smiles!"
But what if I don't want to infuriate anyone? No one will want to stick around someone who everyone thinks is looking down on them.
Still, I let the smile come to me, making sure that one side curled upward. It was definitely more of a smirk than anything else. I would hate to see it directed at me.
Teacher gave a hum and deemed it, "Not bad."
With that in mind, I ran my hand through my hair and walked down the hallway with my chin up, glad that I wasn't entirely forbidden from smiling. As requirements went, mine weren't too bad. Ecilan had it much worse than me. He wasn't allowed to smile or talk much at all. Laica didn't have it much better either. He had to insult people whenever he opened his mouth! I wouldn't enjoy having to put down other people. Maintaining a prideful demeanor wasn't all that bad in comparison. At least, I wasn't actively being mean.
Besides, having to pretend to be full of pride means that one day, it really will come true, won't it?
One day, when I could actually lead the worship service as the official Moon Knight, one day, when I could proudly stand beside Lesus and the others and hold my head high, that day would be the day when it would no longer be a pretense.
But for now, my main battle ahead of me was the current worship service, where I had to somehow sing without embarrassing my teacher and all the generations of Moon Knights that had come before us. By conquering this, I would be one step closer to the future I wished for, a future where my pride was genuine.
Now, while Teacher had said that it was fine if I faltered on the holy light aspect during singing, he had never said that it was okay to sing... poorly. What if I went out there to sing, only to sing everything completely off beat, or even worse, off tune? No, that wouldn't do at all. If I wanted to appear prideful, there was no way I could sing poorly.
See, if I went out there and sang with my voice never hitting the right notes, and still tried to stick my chin up, wouldn't that just make everyone think that I'm delusional and full of myself? I wouldn't appear prideful. I'd just appear stupid!
No, that really wouldn't do at all. I have to practice on my own before then!
My steps hastened, as there was no time to waste if I wanted to improve in time for the worship service. Just like how big events came with rehearsals before the actual event, I too needed practice before the real thing in order not to make a fool of myself and dishonor the name of all Moon Knights.
While an empty prayer room would have been a smarter location to pick, I went for the actual Hall of Praise. None of the prayer rooms had anything on the Hall of Praise. None of them were as grand or as large. Practicing anywhere but the actual Hall of Praise wouldn't give me the same experience.
Once I reached the building, I slowed down and glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching me. Then, I cautiously reached for the door. The heavy, ornate door opened after a hard push. I stuck my body in to peer inside. It seemed empty. Perfect.
I was about to turn to close the door when a finger poked me right in the cheek and almost got me in the eye. I jolted and let go of the door without thinking, my heart about to jump out of my throat. I had been so sure that I was alone!
As the heavy door began to swing shut, it was the new person's turn to jolt, and a large slab of ice shot out, slamming the door wide open and freezing it in place.
That seemed a bit... excessive.
"You nearly squashed me," the person who had poked me accused.
"You nearly blinded me," I accused right back, only to receive a shrug.
"All right, fair."
Then, the newcomer strolled right in. He turned and frowned at the door, which was still frozen in place because of the ice he had thrown at it. He muttered out loud, "Using the wind element to keep the door open would probably have been better. I should get Teacher to show me. What to do now... Will Teacher believe me if I claim that Chikus was the one to damage the door? But it'll clearly look like water damage... No, if the door is so cheap that a little bit of ice can damage it, then it's not my fault! It's the Church's fault for being so cheap! The door should have been built better from the start so it wouldn't be up to me to make sure it wouldn't be easily damaged! This is going to cut into our funds!"
The newcomer, now that I wasn't in danger of getting blinded or squashed and could actually pay attention, turned out to be someone I sort of knew-Grisia, the Pope-in-training. I'd heard enough strange compliments about Grisia from Laica that it felt like I almost knew him. Laica had told me all about our future Pope's skills with lightning and ice magic and especially his holy light abilities. Ever since the mission they'd gone on together, Laica just could not stop "complaining" about what a liar Grisia was, but it was always said in a way that made me think Laica was complimenting Grisia more than he was complaining about him. In fact, Laica seemed to be quite a fan of our future Pope. I'd never heard him talk about anyone else this much before.
After hearing all that praise about Grisia's magical abilities, it was no big surprise that he could throw ice magic out like that without a second thought. Laica hadn't been exaggerating. Our future Pope was a combat cleric!
Our meeting that day was a memorable one not only because it had set the stage for my first worship service, but also because that had been the first time I had ever been alone in Grisia's presence. If not for that, everything that had followed probably wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have given Grisia "life advice" without even knowing that I had.
It started with an innocent enough question. An incriminating one, really, but still quite innocent when it all came down to it.
"Should I melt the ice right away or let it melt naturally?" he muttered.
With all his mumbling to himself, I hadn't thought he was actually asking for my opinion.
"Hey, Voila, are you listening or not?" Grisia pressed.
"Did you just call me Voila?" I asked in disbelief. Even though we hadn't interacted all that much, there was no way that he didn't actually know my name, right? Even if he forgot, he must have heard Laica call me by my name before! Besides, who would even think that anyone was named "Voila"?
My name isn't some interjection!
He seemed to perk up, his posture straightening. "Lately, I've been thinking of nicknames for everyone. I wouldn't want to leave you out. Do you like it?"
So it's actually a nickname?! I didn't know if that was better or worse. And since when have we gotten so familiar that he was making up a nickname for me? Please, it's okay if you leave me out! No one will take me seriously if they hear me get called that!
"No," I said.
"No?" Grisia asked.
"No," I said again.
Grisia sighed. "But it fit the conversation just now so perfectly, and it got your attention all right! What about Violet then, like your hair? Perfect, right?"
Without thinking, my hand sought out my hair. I knew he wasn't claiming that my hair was perfect, but that the name Violet would be perfect, given the color of my hair. Yet I couldn't help but hope that my hair did look nice, as my teacher always taught me that having a neat and tidy appearance was the key to a prideful demeanor. I ran my hand through my hair some more, trying to smooth it down, hoping that Teacher hadn't made too big of a mess of it earlier.
"Better than Voila," I admitted. I'd always been partial to the color. It looked good on me.
He beamed at me. "Violet it is! So, Violet, what do you say? Should I melt the ice right away or let it melt naturally?"
"Well, that depends," I answered. "Are you the type to choose to jump off a building or the type to choose to drown in the sea?"
He laughed. "So, it's a choice between a quick death or a slow one?"
He got the intent of my question pretty quickly. "Exactly. Which would you choose?"
"Hm, a quick death means it would be over right away. That's not bad? But I'd go with the slow one. It may be agonizing while it happens, but more time means there'd be more of a chance for the situation to be salvaged."
I blinked. Huh, I had never thought of it that way. I just figured that both led to death and had never considered which could leave room for salvation, even if it might be painful.
But that didn't really apply in this case, right?
I glanced at the door and said, "If you're the type to choose death by sea, that probably also means you're the type to ignore your problems and put things off when you know the result is inevitable."
For a moment, Grisia froze, and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until later, way in the future, that I would find out that the careless words I had spoken as a boy about a damaged door had made Grisia's decision about the rest of his life for him.
How was I to know that we were having two completely different conversations?
All of a sudden, like he hadn't been frozen, Grisia came to life and stomped his feet childishly. "Hey, I resent that! There might not be a problem at all. The door might not actually be damaged!"
"You sure?"
"Fine!" He huffed and held his hand out. When ice came to his hand, he tossed it behind him. It took him another try before he managed to gather the water element to him instead of having it turn into ice.
I'm no mage, but isn't water supposed to be easier than ice?
Finally, he sent a jet of water element at the iced door. We both watched as the ice slowly began to melt, water pooling on the ground.
Grisia was right. Not about how the door wasn't damaged, but about how it was cheap. The door, although I had thought it to be ornate, must have been constructed using cheap materials. It was clearly dented from the impact of the ice, with a large darkened area across its surface that I wasn't sure would go away even after the wood dried.
The door thudded shut after the agonizing wait of watching ice melt. The sound was too loud and too final.
There was no coming back from that kind of damage.
After a moment of silence, Grisia began to mumble again. "I can't believe the door really is that cheap. I know, I'll get Chikus to kick this door down, and he'll think he was the one to damage the door, just like what happened with Roland's door! The doors around here are all built in such a flimsy way because of the Blaze Knights anyway. There's no reason to spend so much money on doors when the Blaze Knights will break them down eventually. So, it really is Chikus's fault that this door is so easy to damage. Right, I'll just have to direct him this way by challenging him or something..."
I could feel my eyebrows lifting higher and higher the more he mumbled. Is this why Laica always called Grisia a liar?! Should I feel worried for Chikus?
"Uh... you know I can hear what you're saying, right?"
He spun around, the veil on his face fluttering from the motion, revealing a glimpse of a wide grin. "Oh, but Violet, we're friends, aren't we? You won't tell anyone what you just heard, right?"
Friends? Since when did we become friends? While I was glad that sticking my chin up hadn't put him off from wanting to be my friend, didn't that mean that my attitude wasn't overbearing enough?
"We're... not friends?" I said.
He stuck his hands on his waist and complained, "I already gave you a nickname. How are we not friends?"
Okay...?
I let it go, watching him turn and make his way into the room, the fiasco surrounding the door already behind him, now that he had thought of a "solution."
The dappled light shining through the stained glass windows cast a beautiful, patterned shadow across Grisia's golden hair, pulling my attention away from the damaged door. He walked down the aisle while humming to himself, not at all hesitant about barging into such an important place despite the damage he had caused. While I worried that the damaged door might land us in trouble, his confidence kept me captivated, unable to tear my eyes away.
Wasn't this the kind of aura my teacher always wished for me to have?
Grisia made it look so easy. So natural. Now, I could finally understand why my teacher always said that a neat and tidy appearance was the first step to a prideful demeanor. Even though Grisia did not seem to pay extra attention to his appearance, he had a natural beauty to him and carried himself with utmost confidence. If I hadn't seen it happening with my own eyes right now, I wouldn't have known that he had just damaged the door to this important building. Just his appearance alone inspired others to look up to him.
I swallowed and forced my feet to move, to catch up with him. Without even thinking about it, I found myself copying him. If I could approximate whatever he was doing, maybe I too could come across as someone who had something to be proud of. He appeared deep in thought, one arm held across his body, holding onto his elbow, while the other supported his chin, yet even then, he did not appear lost.
"Why are you here?" I could not help but ask. I quickly dropped my arms to my side so that he would not catch me copying him.
Instead of answering me, he shot my question back at me. "Why are you here? Don't you know that this place is off limits?"
"You're here too," I challenged. What had happened to the door earlier had diverted my attention from the fact that his timing had been suspicious. Had he followed me?
"Off limits to you, not to me," he clarified.
Oh. Oh right. He was the Pope's student. He probably had permission to be here and thought that I looked suspicious and had followed me to see why I was sneaking into this building.
"I..." I began, not knowing what to say. No, no, that wouldn't do at all. I couldn't appear so wishy washy. I had to be confident! Proud! I stuck my chin up. "I'm here to see if the building is in an acceptable state for the upcoming worship service that my teacher will be leading on behalf of the Twelve Holy Knights."
Then, I immediately deflated because dear God of Light, the building might have been in an acceptable state before this, but it certainly was not anymore due to what had happened to the door. That just won't do! The worship service has to be perfect!
A hand came up to my shoulder. Grisia gave me a pat and said, "There there, we're partners in crime. No one will have to know."
"I'm not the one who iced the door!" I exclaimed.
"But you're the one who almost squashed me with it, you know," Grisia immediately argued. "If you hadn't let go of the door and put my life in danger, I wouldn't have had to save myself like that."
"You're the one who scared me, coming out of nowhere to poke my face. You almost took out my eye!"
"Well, just who was sneaking around where he shouldn't? Let me tell you, you really suck at being inconspicuous. It's a good thing you're not an undercover spy!"
I groaned and covered my face with my hands. This argument was going nowhere! I mean, I was actually kind of pleased to hear that I wasn't good at being inconspicuous, since that meant I stood out, right? Standing out was a good thing for a Moon Knight. But none of that mattered right now. None of that was why I had come to the Hall of Praise.
I blurted, "I just wanted to practice my singing! This is a mess."
Grisia seemed to perk up at that. "I knew it! You're worried about the upcoming worship service, aren't you?"
"Are you that delighted by my dilemma?" I grumbled.
Grisia waved his hand in the air, just like what my teacher had done earlier, but that wasn't going to wave my worries away. "Why are you worried? Are you bad at singing?"
I pursed my lips. "I'm not terrible, at least I don't think I am, but how can I be sure? Besides, singing in front of a large crowd in a room as gigantic as this one is completely different from singing to myself in my own room. Not only that, I have to imbue my singing with holy light at the same time. I can't imagine not stumbling somehow, whether it's from hitting the wrong notes or from having my holy light sputter halfway through."
Grisia didn't say anything at first. He just turned and plopped himself down on one of the benches. When I didn't react, he gestured at the front of the room and said, "Well, aren't you going to give it a try? I'll be your audience."
I felt my throat dry up at the thought of having an audience. He was only one person, which should logically be less nerve-racking than singing in front of an entire room of people, but since he was alone, that meant his entire attention would be on me. It kind of made it even worse.
I forced my feet to move. "Why are you helping me?"
"I already said we're friends, didn't I? Friends help each other."
Even though I couldn't see his face, I could hear the grin in his words.
Were things really that easy? Maybe he just wanted to make fun of me.
I gulped and turned stiffly. He waved at me from where he sat.
"Start with an easy song?" he asked and followed that with his own singing. Holy light shimmered around him as he sang the first verse, his voice high and clear. Even his singing was beautiful.
I would be singing along with my teacher, so this was as good of a practice as any. As the second verse started, I joined in, my voice slightly lower than his and definitely not as reassured. I could hear how unsteady my voice was when I had to hold a note. I wasn't even releasing holy light yet. As the third verse began, I braced myself and gathered the holy element to me, my brows furrowing.
Grisia abruptly stopped singing.
Was my singing that poor?
Still, I forced myself to finish singing the final verse. Then, I let go of the holy element I had gathered.
"Now, that wasn't too bad, right?" Grisia said. "Your voice was a bit hesitant and your gathering of the holy element could be smoother, but overall, it wasn't bad."
"Why did you stop singing so suddenly?" I asked. If my performance "wasn't bad," then what was with that reaction?
He laughed. "Your expression! You made singing look so painful! Like you were constipated for three days straight! No one in the audience will feel blessed from that!"
I held my face with my hands once again.
Grisia's presence with no one around was exhausting. My past self was a fortunate soul to have escaped this for so long. Still, I couldn't help but admit that Grisia was helping me quite a bit. If I had sung in front of the public without Grisia's input beforehand, I could have gone in with this... this painful expression and dishonored all Moon Knights that had come before me.
We tried another song, my voice growing stronger as our practice continued. This time, gathering holy light felt a bit easier and less unnatural. I even felt like I still had plenty in me for subsequent songs. This was a good sign that even if I had to sing multiple songs during the actual worship service, it may be possible for me to maintain my holy light output the entire time.
As we started on our fourth song, however, I began to feel my holy light waning. I almost scrunched my brows together again, but when I remembered how Grisia had laughed at me for it, I smoothed my expression instead, letting the smirk that my teacher had instructed me to utilize to take over. I powered through, and when I faltered again, I felt Grisia's holy light encircle us instead, leading us to the end of the song. The holy light was warm and soothing, as if reassuring me that everything would be okay. This was what it felt like to be blessed.
So that's what my teacher meant. Even if my holy light faltered, we would have backup. I wouldn't be alone out there. My teacher would be there. The Pope would be there. Grisia would be there.
I could do this.
My holy light had felt depleted, but I reached for it once more and was able to pull it to me. I started on the fifth song, pleased that I could still imbue my singing with holy light. I had worried so much about poor singing and lacking enough holy light for the songs, yet here I was, on my fifth song! I couldn't have done it without Grisia.
I looked toward him, wanting to catch his attention to thank him, only to see dark mist surrounding him instead of the soft light from before. My eyes widened. This time, I was the one to abruptly stop singing, but he didn't seem to notice. Either that, or he didn't care that I had stopped. He continued on with the song, singing about the beauty of spring. The content of the song and the darkness swirling around him were completely at odds. Even from where I stood, I could feel my skin prickling, a chill creeping down my spine. Whatever Grisia was doing right now was the farthest thing from a blessing.
"Grisia, do you know that you're oozing darkness?" I asked slowly and rubbed my arms in discomfort.
As the song ended, he pulled the darkness around him to his hands and compressed it into a ball. He then tossed it back and forth between his two hands.
"Grisia...?" I prodded.
"That worked better than I thought," he finally said.
"What worked better than you thought?"
"Imbuing the song with dark element instead of holy element."
"That's... not a blessing anymore, is it?" I gulped. I had never considered something like that to be possible.
"How did it feel?" he asked instead of answering.
"Uneasy. It didn't feel good."
Despite what I said, he seemed happy to hear it. "This opens so many possibilities."
Don't tell me you plan on cursing people with hymns! We're the Church of the God of Light! We're supposed to be blessing people, not cursing them! You're the Pope-in-training! Even though you're not the sparkling Sun Knight, shouldn't you still shine with holy light?
"That... that was the dark element, wasn't it? Aren't you training to be the Pope?" I could not help but ask in confusion. "Why do you know how to use the dark element?"
He waved his hand in the air again, as if my question wasn't important. "I believe I can help you with another aspect of your problem, Violet!"
"You've already helped me. We practiced five songs already. I know that my holy element will be adequate for the worship service," I told him. There was no way we were singing more than five songs for a regular worship service.
"No, no, but throughout all of that, I was your only audience! Didn't you say that you're worried about singing in front of a large crowd? We haven't practiced that part yet."
Grisia, as it turned out, wasn't someone who did anything without 200% assurance, and that meant making sure that every single little aspect of my worries were to be addressed before he would feel satisfied. I had somehow become some sort of pet project without realizing it.
"How would you be able to help me with that? You're only one person," I began to say. "Wait, don't tell me you're going to invite a bunch of other people to come watch me like some sort of private recital? Please don't! That'd be so embarrassing! I'd rather just embarrass myself during the actual thing!"
Getting a whole room of people together just to force them to listen to my amateur singing would make me such a conceited person! Just how full of myself would I have to be to... Wait, I'm supposed to be haughty...
Grisia laughed. "No way! They'd see the door before I could destroy the evidence."
Destroy the evidence?!
"No, that wasn't what I had in mind at all. Here, start singing and you'll find out!"
He sounded gleeful. Way too gleeful.
Singing six songs was really pushing it. My voice was tired, and my holy light was pretty much depleted. But if I could get through this, then the actual worship service was going to be a piece of cake. I began to sing, my holy light sputtering. My eyes fluttered closed as I tried to pull more holy element to me. It didn't make for a smooth, reassuring song and felt more like someone gasping their final breath. Still, I made sure not to frown, hoping that Grisia would lend me a hand with his holy light.
If I had kept my eyes open, I could have at least saved myself from the utter shock I would be subjected to next.
When I opened my eyes again to try to catch Grisia's gaze and ask him for help, I was abruptly greeted by an entire room filled with dark figures sitting on every single bench, an eerie audience that had appeared out of nowhere to silently judge my poor singing.
"What in the name of the God of Light is that?!" I screamed and jumped so far back that my back hit the wall. However, even the sudden pain didn't wake me up from this nightmare.
Dear God of Light, this scene was going to haunt my dreams.
Grisia winced, his hands flying to his ears. "Damn, Violet, are you trying to deafen me? I was just trying to help you out. You said you needed a large crowd, so... Here's a large crowd."
As one, the dark figures turned in my direction.
I couldn't believe him!
"Are you training to be the next Pope, or are you training to be a demon overlord?" I screeched. Oh dear, all my confidence and poise had flown out the window. Goodbye. It was nice knowing you...
Grisia was suspiciously silent until he burst out with, "Wow, Violet, I'm so glad we're friends. You have the best life advice!"
What?!
And that was how Grisia and I became "friends." I had no idea what had actually been going on, only that he was the most unbelievable person I had ever had the fortune (misfortune) of meeting. Not only was he versed in ice, lightning, and holy magic, he was also well on his way to becoming a skilled dark mage, something unheard of for clerics of the Church of the God of Light. Yet he had gathered so much dark element in a room charged with holy element and had even molded an entire room of humanoid figures using the dark element all for the sake of helping me "practice."
Unbelievable!
For some reason, I became his go to person for "life advice," ranging anywhere from whether he should pick a blueberry lollipop or a blueberry cheesecake to the merits of a knight versus a holy knight.
They were always seemingly innocent questions, yet they always made me wonder what they were actually about.
At the time, I had no idea that what had been a simple conversation to me had been a life-changing one for Grisia. When Grisia had doubted about his future after his monumental meeting with his "big" sister, I had somehow given him just the advice he needed, and it had all come about because of a door that Grisia had accidentally damaged, and that he did indeed trick Chikus into kicking down later on.
As I stood at the front of the Hall of Praise with my chin in the air, looking down at all the people in the audience, I abruptly realized that I didn't feel nervous at all. I harmonized my voice with my teacher's and used just the right amount of holy light. Although the room was crowded, these people had nothing on the eerie, humanoid dark figures that Grisia had filled the room with.
Besides, even if I faltered with my holy light, Grisia would be able to help me out.
My voice rang out crisp and clear, my holy light holding strong.
I almost wanted to grin, but I wrangled it into a smirk like what my teacher had taught me, pride coursing through me.
When the song came to an end and I saw Grisia turn to give me a nod, his hair a beautiful gold under the dappled sunlight, I decided right then and there to nickname him, "Goldie."
It would only be fair to return the favor. We were friends, after all.
to be continued
Vival has the best life advice. 8D
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Title: My Friend, the Pope (in-training)
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 5,635
Summary: Grisia wasn't chosen as the Sun Knight. This is the legend of the strongest Pope in all history. AU.
Notes: Vival has been waiting years for his time to shine. :')
Part 11: Vival
While I had interacted with him during lessons on holy magic and sometimes brushed by him in the hallways, it wasn't until I was tasked with helping out with conducting the next worship service that we became actual "friends" instead of mere acquaintances.
It was then that I learned just how unbelievable he was.
The worship service was to be held in the Hall of Praise, a beautiful building made for beautiful voices. As a holy knight-in-training who was still learning his way around, I was not expected to lead the service. Instead, I would be assisting my teacher, who would be the one leading the worship service. Before taking on any students, the teachers had instead led the worship service with each other in pairs. Now, it would be my teacher and me instead of my teacher and another knight-captain. So, despite that I wasn't expected to lead the service, I was still filling in for a knight-captain, and that was an awfully big role to fill.
"I have to imbue my singing with holy light? How do I do that?" I wondered out loud.
My holy light abilities, while not poor, were not all that amazing either. It meant that I would have to regulate the holy light I used during my singing to make sure that I had enough to last me the entire song. Perhaps even more than one song, if my teacher wished to push my limits. I would also have to make sure to appear noble and haughty while singing.
How was I to appear noble and haughty when I was more than likely to choke on my own saliva in a futile attempt to reach those high notes? Even worse, I had to bless the audience with holy light while dying in embarrassment, like I was giving them my blessing to laugh at me!
My teacher waved his hand in the air. "Don't worry about it so much. Just make sure to keep your chin raised and your eyes sharp. If your holy light falters at all, the Pope will be with us to assist. His student, too. We're the cruel, cold-hearted faction. We're not expected to be sparkling with holy light. Remember, the good, warm-hearted faction leads with benevolence, while we lead with severity. Your haughty demeanor is what will reassure the public that everything is well in hand."
I was about to nod when I remembered what my teacher always told me: keep your chin raised.
I really should have taken the opportunity to nod to my content when I still could, as I would later on develop quite the stiff neck, but the eager to please youth I had been instead quickly stuck his chin up and said, "I understand."
At that, my teacher's hand dropped on top of my head, and he gave it a rub.
A smile almost came over my face, but I managed to push it down.
"You can smile, Vival." Teacher waved his hand again. I immediately missed the weight on top of my head. "You just need to make sure it looks more like a smirk. It can even help you infuriate people. No soft or fond smiles!"
But what if I don't want to infuriate anyone? No one will want to stick around someone who everyone thinks is looking down on them.
Still, I let the smile come to me, making sure that one side curled upward. It was definitely more of a smirk than anything else. I would hate to see it directed at me.
Teacher gave a hum and deemed it, "Not bad."
With that in mind, I ran my hand through my hair and walked down the hallway with my chin up, glad that I wasn't entirely forbidden from smiling. As requirements went, mine weren't too bad. Ecilan had it much worse than me. He wasn't allowed to smile or talk much at all. Laica didn't have it much better either. He had to insult people whenever he opened his mouth! I wouldn't enjoy having to put down other people. Maintaining a prideful demeanor wasn't all that bad in comparison. At least, I wasn't actively being mean.
Besides, having to pretend to be full of pride means that one day, it really will come true, won't it?
One day, when I could actually lead the worship service as the official Moon Knight, one day, when I could proudly stand beside Lesus and the others and hold my head high, that day would be the day when it would no longer be a pretense.
But for now, my main battle ahead of me was the current worship service, where I had to somehow sing without embarrassing my teacher and all the generations of Moon Knights that had come before us. By conquering this, I would be one step closer to the future I wished for, a future where my pride was genuine.
Now, while Teacher had said that it was fine if I faltered on the holy light aspect during singing, he had never said that it was okay to sing... poorly. What if I went out there to sing, only to sing everything completely off beat, or even worse, off tune? No, that wouldn't do at all. If I wanted to appear prideful, there was no way I could sing poorly.
See, if I went out there and sang with my voice never hitting the right notes, and still tried to stick my chin up, wouldn't that just make everyone think that I'm delusional and full of myself? I wouldn't appear prideful. I'd just appear stupid!
No, that really wouldn't do at all. I have to practice on my own before then!
My steps hastened, as there was no time to waste if I wanted to improve in time for the worship service. Just like how big events came with rehearsals before the actual event, I too needed practice before the real thing in order not to make a fool of myself and dishonor the name of all Moon Knights.
While an empty prayer room would have been a smarter location to pick, I went for the actual Hall of Praise. None of the prayer rooms had anything on the Hall of Praise. None of them were as grand or as large. Practicing anywhere but the actual Hall of Praise wouldn't give me the same experience.
Once I reached the building, I slowed down and glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching me. Then, I cautiously reached for the door. The heavy, ornate door opened after a hard push. I stuck my body in to peer inside. It seemed empty. Perfect.
I was about to turn to close the door when a finger poked me right in the cheek and almost got me in the eye. I jolted and let go of the door without thinking, my heart about to jump out of my throat. I had been so sure that I was alone!
As the heavy door began to swing shut, it was the new person's turn to jolt, and a large slab of ice shot out, slamming the door wide open and freezing it in place.
That seemed a bit... excessive.
"You nearly squashed me," the person who had poked me accused.
"You nearly blinded me," I accused right back, only to receive a shrug.
"All right, fair."
Then, the newcomer strolled right in. He turned and frowned at the door, which was still frozen in place because of the ice he had thrown at it. He muttered out loud, "Using the wind element to keep the door open would probably have been better. I should get Teacher to show me. What to do now... Will Teacher believe me if I claim that Chikus was the one to damage the door? But it'll clearly look like water damage... No, if the door is so cheap that a little bit of ice can damage it, then it's not my fault! It's the Church's fault for being so cheap! The door should have been built better from the start so it wouldn't be up to me to make sure it wouldn't be easily damaged! This is going to cut into our funds!"
The newcomer, now that I wasn't in danger of getting blinded or squashed and could actually pay attention, turned out to be someone I sort of knew-Grisia, the Pope-in-training. I'd heard enough strange compliments about Grisia from Laica that it felt like I almost knew him. Laica had told me all about our future Pope's skills with lightning and ice magic and especially his holy light abilities. Ever since the mission they'd gone on together, Laica just could not stop "complaining" about what a liar Grisia was, but it was always said in a way that made me think Laica was complimenting Grisia more than he was complaining about him. In fact, Laica seemed to be quite a fan of our future Pope. I'd never heard him talk about anyone else this much before.
After hearing all that praise about Grisia's magical abilities, it was no big surprise that he could throw ice magic out like that without a second thought. Laica hadn't been exaggerating. Our future Pope was a combat cleric!
Our meeting that day was a memorable one not only because it had set the stage for my first worship service, but also because that had been the first time I had ever been alone in Grisia's presence. If not for that, everything that had followed probably wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have given Grisia "life advice" without even knowing that I had.
It started with an innocent enough question. An incriminating one, really, but still quite innocent when it all came down to it.
"Should I melt the ice right away or let it melt naturally?" he muttered.
With all his mumbling to himself, I hadn't thought he was actually asking for my opinion.
"Hey, Voila, are you listening or not?" Grisia pressed.
"Did you just call me Voila?" I asked in disbelief. Even though we hadn't interacted all that much, there was no way that he didn't actually know my name, right? Even if he forgot, he must have heard Laica call me by my name before! Besides, who would even think that anyone was named "Voila"?
My name isn't some interjection!
He seemed to perk up, his posture straightening. "Lately, I've been thinking of nicknames for everyone. I wouldn't want to leave you out. Do you like it?"
So it's actually a nickname?! I didn't know if that was better or worse. And since when have we gotten so familiar that he was making up a nickname for me? Please, it's okay if you leave me out! No one will take me seriously if they hear me get called that!
"No," I said.
"No?" Grisia asked.
"No," I said again.
Grisia sighed. "But it fit the conversation just now so perfectly, and it got your attention all right! What about Violet then, like your hair? Perfect, right?"
Without thinking, my hand sought out my hair. I knew he wasn't claiming that my hair was perfect, but that the name Violet would be perfect, given the color of my hair. Yet I couldn't help but hope that my hair did look nice, as my teacher always taught me that having a neat and tidy appearance was the key to a prideful demeanor. I ran my hand through my hair some more, trying to smooth it down, hoping that Teacher hadn't made too big of a mess of it earlier.
"Better than Voila," I admitted. I'd always been partial to the color. It looked good on me.
He beamed at me. "Violet it is! So, Violet, what do you say? Should I melt the ice right away or let it melt naturally?"
"Well, that depends," I answered. "Are you the type to choose to jump off a building or the type to choose to drown in the sea?"
He laughed. "So, it's a choice between a quick death or a slow one?"
He got the intent of my question pretty quickly. "Exactly. Which would you choose?"
"Hm, a quick death means it would be over right away. That's not bad? But I'd go with the slow one. It may be agonizing while it happens, but more time means there'd be more of a chance for the situation to be salvaged."
I blinked. Huh, I had never thought of it that way. I just figured that both led to death and had never considered which could leave room for salvation, even if it might be painful.
But that didn't really apply in this case, right?
I glanced at the door and said, "If you're the type to choose death by sea, that probably also means you're the type to ignore your problems and put things off when you know the result is inevitable."
For a moment, Grisia froze, and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until later, way in the future, that I would find out that the careless words I had spoken as a boy about a damaged door had made Grisia's decision about the rest of his life for him.
How was I to know that we were having two completely different conversations?
All of a sudden, like he hadn't been frozen, Grisia came to life and stomped his feet childishly. "Hey, I resent that! There might not be a problem at all. The door might not actually be damaged!"
"You sure?"
"Fine!" He huffed and held his hand out. When ice came to his hand, he tossed it behind him. It took him another try before he managed to gather the water element to him instead of having it turn into ice.
I'm no mage, but isn't water supposed to be easier than ice?
Finally, he sent a jet of water element at the iced door. We both watched as the ice slowly began to melt, water pooling on the ground.
Grisia was right. Not about how the door wasn't damaged, but about how it was cheap. The door, although I had thought it to be ornate, must have been constructed using cheap materials. It was clearly dented from the impact of the ice, with a large darkened area across its surface that I wasn't sure would go away even after the wood dried.
The door thudded shut after the agonizing wait of watching ice melt. The sound was too loud and too final.
There was no coming back from that kind of damage.
After a moment of silence, Grisia began to mumble again. "I can't believe the door really is that cheap. I know, I'll get Chikus to kick this door down, and he'll think he was the one to damage the door, just like what happened with Roland's door! The doors around here are all built in such a flimsy way because of the Blaze Knights anyway. There's no reason to spend so much money on doors when the Blaze Knights will break them down eventually. So, it really is Chikus's fault that this door is so easy to damage. Right, I'll just have to direct him this way by challenging him or something..."
I could feel my eyebrows lifting higher and higher the more he mumbled. Is this why Laica always called Grisia a liar?! Should I feel worried for Chikus?
"Uh... you know I can hear what you're saying, right?"
He spun around, the veil on his face fluttering from the motion, revealing a glimpse of a wide grin. "Oh, but Violet, we're friends, aren't we? You won't tell anyone what you just heard, right?"
Friends? Since when did we become friends? While I was glad that sticking my chin up hadn't put him off from wanting to be my friend, didn't that mean that my attitude wasn't overbearing enough?
"We're... not friends?" I said.
He stuck his hands on his waist and complained, "I already gave you a nickname. How are we not friends?"
Okay...?
I let it go, watching him turn and make his way into the room, the fiasco surrounding the door already behind him, now that he had thought of a "solution."
The dappled light shining through the stained glass windows cast a beautiful, patterned shadow across Grisia's golden hair, pulling my attention away from the damaged door. He walked down the aisle while humming to himself, not at all hesitant about barging into such an important place despite the damage he had caused. While I worried that the damaged door might land us in trouble, his confidence kept me captivated, unable to tear my eyes away.
Wasn't this the kind of aura my teacher always wished for me to have?
Grisia made it look so easy. So natural. Now, I could finally understand why my teacher always said that a neat and tidy appearance was the first step to a prideful demeanor. Even though Grisia did not seem to pay extra attention to his appearance, he had a natural beauty to him and carried himself with utmost confidence. If I hadn't seen it happening with my own eyes right now, I wouldn't have known that he had just damaged the door to this important building. Just his appearance alone inspired others to look up to him.
I swallowed and forced my feet to move, to catch up with him. Without even thinking about it, I found myself copying him. If I could approximate whatever he was doing, maybe I too could come across as someone who had something to be proud of. He appeared deep in thought, one arm held across his body, holding onto his elbow, while the other supported his chin, yet even then, he did not appear lost.
"Why are you here?" I could not help but ask. I quickly dropped my arms to my side so that he would not catch me copying him.
Instead of answering me, he shot my question back at me. "Why are you here? Don't you know that this place is off limits?"
"You're here too," I challenged. What had happened to the door earlier had diverted my attention from the fact that his timing had been suspicious. Had he followed me?
"Off limits to you, not to me," he clarified.
Oh. Oh right. He was the Pope's student. He probably had permission to be here and thought that I looked suspicious and had followed me to see why I was sneaking into this building.
"I..." I began, not knowing what to say. No, no, that wouldn't do at all. I couldn't appear so wishy washy. I had to be confident! Proud! I stuck my chin up. "I'm here to see if the building is in an acceptable state for the upcoming worship service that my teacher will be leading on behalf of the Twelve Holy Knights."
Then, I immediately deflated because dear God of Light, the building might have been in an acceptable state before this, but it certainly was not anymore due to what had happened to the door. That just won't do! The worship service has to be perfect!
A hand came up to my shoulder. Grisia gave me a pat and said, "There there, we're partners in crime. No one will have to know."
"I'm not the one who iced the door!" I exclaimed.
"But you're the one who almost squashed me with it, you know," Grisia immediately argued. "If you hadn't let go of the door and put my life in danger, I wouldn't have had to save myself like that."
"You're the one who scared me, coming out of nowhere to poke my face. You almost took out my eye!"
"Well, just who was sneaking around where he shouldn't? Let me tell you, you really suck at being inconspicuous. It's a good thing you're not an undercover spy!"
I groaned and covered my face with my hands. This argument was going nowhere! I mean, I was actually kind of pleased to hear that I wasn't good at being inconspicuous, since that meant I stood out, right? Standing out was a good thing for a Moon Knight. But none of that mattered right now. None of that was why I had come to the Hall of Praise.
I blurted, "I just wanted to practice my singing! This is a mess."
Grisia seemed to perk up at that. "I knew it! You're worried about the upcoming worship service, aren't you?"
"Are you that delighted by my dilemma?" I grumbled.
Grisia waved his hand in the air, just like what my teacher had done earlier, but that wasn't going to wave my worries away. "Why are you worried? Are you bad at singing?"
I pursed my lips. "I'm not terrible, at least I don't think I am, but how can I be sure? Besides, singing in front of a large crowd in a room as gigantic as this one is completely different from singing to myself in my own room. Not only that, I have to imbue my singing with holy light at the same time. I can't imagine not stumbling somehow, whether it's from hitting the wrong notes or from having my holy light sputter halfway through."
Grisia didn't say anything at first. He just turned and plopped himself down on one of the benches. When I didn't react, he gestured at the front of the room and said, "Well, aren't you going to give it a try? I'll be your audience."
I felt my throat dry up at the thought of having an audience. He was only one person, which should logically be less nerve-racking than singing in front of an entire room of people, but since he was alone, that meant his entire attention would be on me. It kind of made it even worse.
I forced my feet to move. "Why are you helping me?"
"I already said we're friends, didn't I? Friends help each other."
Even though I couldn't see his face, I could hear the grin in his words.
Were things really that easy? Maybe he just wanted to make fun of me.
I gulped and turned stiffly. He waved at me from where he sat.
"Start with an easy song?" he asked and followed that with his own singing. Holy light shimmered around him as he sang the first verse, his voice high and clear. Even his singing was beautiful.
I would be singing along with my teacher, so this was as good of a practice as any. As the second verse started, I joined in, my voice slightly lower than his and definitely not as reassured. I could hear how unsteady my voice was when I had to hold a note. I wasn't even releasing holy light yet. As the third verse began, I braced myself and gathered the holy element to me, my brows furrowing.
Grisia abruptly stopped singing.
Was my singing that poor?
Still, I forced myself to finish singing the final verse. Then, I let go of the holy element I had gathered.
"Now, that wasn't too bad, right?" Grisia said. "Your voice was a bit hesitant and your gathering of the holy element could be smoother, but overall, it wasn't bad."
"Why did you stop singing so suddenly?" I asked. If my performance "wasn't bad," then what was with that reaction?
He laughed. "Your expression! You made singing look so painful! Like you were constipated for three days straight! No one in the audience will feel blessed from that!"
I held my face with my hands once again.
Grisia's presence with no one around was exhausting. My past self was a fortunate soul to have escaped this for so long. Still, I couldn't help but admit that Grisia was helping me quite a bit. If I had sung in front of the public without Grisia's input beforehand, I could have gone in with this... this painful expression and dishonored all Moon Knights that had come before me.
We tried another song, my voice growing stronger as our practice continued. This time, gathering holy light felt a bit easier and less unnatural. I even felt like I still had plenty in me for subsequent songs. This was a good sign that even if I had to sing multiple songs during the actual worship service, it may be possible for me to maintain my holy light output the entire time.
As we started on our fourth song, however, I began to feel my holy light waning. I almost scrunched my brows together again, but when I remembered how Grisia had laughed at me for it, I smoothed my expression instead, letting the smirk that my teacher had instructed me to utilize to take over. I powered through, and when I faltered again, I felt Grisia's holy light encircle us instead, leading us to the end of the song. The holy light was warm and soothing, as if reassuring me that everything would be okay. This was what it felt like to be blessed.
So that's what my teacher meant. Even if my holy light faltered, we would have backup. I wouldn't be alone out there. My teacher would be there. The Pope would be there. Grisia would be there.
I could do this.
My holy light had felt depleted, but I reached for it once more and was able to pull it to me. I started on the fifth song, pleased that I could still imbue my singing with holy light. I had worried so much about poor singing and lacking enough holy light for the songs, yet here I was, on my fifth song! I couldn't have done it without Grisia.
I looked toward him, wanting to catch his attention to thank him, only to see dark mist surrounding him instead of the soft light from before. My eyes widened. This time, I was the one to abruptly stop singing, but he didn't seem to notice. Either that, or he didn't care that I had stopped. He continued on with the song, singing about the beauty of spring. The content of the song and the darkness swirling around him were completely at odds. Even from where I stood, I could feel my skin prickling, a chill creeping down my spine. Whatever Grisia was doing right now was the farthest thing from a blessing.
"Grisia, do you know that you're oozing darkness?" I asked slowly and rubbed my arms in discomfort.
As the song ended, he pulled the darkness around him to his hands and compressed it into a ball. He then tossed it back and forth between his two hands.
"Grisia...?" I prodded.
"That worked better than I thought," he finally said.
"What worked better than you thought?"
"Imbuing the song with dark element instead of holy element."
"That's... not a blessing anymore, is it?" I gulped. I had never considered something like that to be possible.
"How did it feel?" he asked instead of answering.
"Uneasy. It didn't feel good."
Despite what I said, he seemed happy to hear it. "This opens so many possibilities."
Don't tell me you plan on cursing people with hymns! We're the Church of the God of Light! We're supposed to be blessing people, not cursing them! You're the Pope-in-training! Even though you're not the sparkling Sun Knight, shouldn't you still shine with holy light?
"That... that was the dark element, wasn't it? Aren't you training to be the Pope?" I could not help but ask in confusion. "Why do you know how to use the dark element?"
He waved his hand in the air again, as if my question wasn't important. "I believe I can help you with another aspect of your problem, Violet!"
"You've already helped me. We practiced five songs already. I know that my holy element will be adequate for the worship service," I told him. There was no way we were singing more than five songs for a regular worship service.
"No, no, but throughout all of that, I was your only audience! Didn't you say that you're worried about singing in front of a large crowd? We haven't practiced that part yet."
Grisia, as it turned out, wasn't someone who did anything without 200% assurance, and that meant making sure that every single little aspect of my worries were to be addressed before he would feel satisfied. I had somehow become some sort of pet project without realizing it.
"How would you be able to help me with that? You're only one person," I began to say. "Wait, don't tell me you're going to invite a bunch of other people to come watch me like some sort of private recital? Please don't! That'd be so embarrassing! I'd rather just embarrass myself during the actual thing!"
Getting a whole room of people together just to force them to listen to my amateur singing would make me such a conceited person! Just how full of myself would I have to be to... Wait, I'm supposed to be haughty...
Grisia laughed. "No way! They'd see the door before I could destroy the evidence."
Destroy the evidence?!
"No, that wasn't what I had in mind at all. Here, start singing and you'll find out!"
He sounded gleeful. Way too gleeful.
Singing six songs was really pushing it. My voice was tired, and my holy light was pretty much depleted. But if I could get through this, then the actual worship service was going to be a piece of cake. I began to sing, my holy light sputtering. My eyes fluttered closed as I tried to pull more holy element to me. It didn't make for a smooth, reassuring song and felt more like someone gasping their final breath. Still, I made sure not to frown, hoping that Grisia would lend me a hand with his holy light.
If I had kept my eyes open, I could have at least saved myself from the utter shock I would be subjected to next.
When I opened my eyes again to try to catch Grisia's gaze and ask him for help, I was abruptly greeted by an entire room filled with dark figures sitting on every single bench, an eerie audience that had appeared out of nowhere to silently judge my poor singing.
"What in the name of the God of Light is that?!" I screamed and jumped so far back that my back hit the wall. However, even the sudden pain didn't wake me up from this nightmare.
Dear God of Light, this scene was going to haunt my dreams.
Grisia winced, his hands flying to his ears. "Damn, Violet, are you trying to deafen me? I was just trying to help you out. You said you needed a large crowd, so... Here's a large crowd."
As one, the dark figures turned in my direction.
I couldn't believe him!
"Are you training to be the next Pope, or are you training to be a demon overlord?" I screeched. Oh dear, all my confidence and poise had flown out the window. Goodbye. It was nice knowing you...
Grisia was suspiciously silent until he burst out with, "Wow, Violet, I'm so glad we're friends. You have the best life advice!"
What?!
And that was how Grisia and I became "friends." I had no idea what had actually been going on, only that he was the most unbelievable person I had ever had the fortune (misfortune) of meeting. Not only was he versed in ice, lightning, and holy magic, he was also well on his way to becoming a skilled dark mage, something unheard of for clerics of the Church of the God of Light. Yet he had gathered so much dark element in a room charged with holy element and had even molded an entire room of humanoid figures using the dark element all for the sake of helping me "practice."
Unbelievable!
For some reason, I became his go to person for "life advice," ranging anywhere from whether he should pick a blueberry lollipop or a blueberry cheesecake to the merits of a knight versus a holy knight.
They were always seemingly innocent questions, yet they always made me wonder what they were actually about.
At the time, I had no idea that what had been a simple conversation to me had been a life-changing one for Grisia. When Grisia had doubted about his future after his monumental meeting with his "big" sister, I had somehow given him just the advice he needed, and it had all come about because of a door that Grisia had accidentally damaged, and that he did indeed trick Chikus into kicking down later on.
As I stood at the front of the Hall of Praise with my chin in the air, looking down at all the people in the audience, I abruptly realized that I didn't feel nervous at all. I harmonized my voice with my teacher's and used just the right amount of holy light. Although the room was crowded, these people had nothing on the eerie, humanoid dark figures that Grisia had filled the room with.
Besides, even if I faltered with my holy light, Grisia would be able to help me out.
My voice rang out crisp and clear, my holy light holding strong.
I almost wanted to grin, but I wrangled it into a smirk like what my teacher had taught me, pride coursing through me.
When the song came to an end and I saw Grisia turn to give me a nod, his hair a beautiful gold under the dappled sunlight, I decided right then and there to nickname him, "Goldie."
It would only be fair to return the favor. We were friends, after all.
to be continued
Vival has the best life advice. 8D
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